Saturday, March 1, 2008

I mean, seriously. Screw Jack and Kate, give me some more Desmond and Penny! These two make me melt over the phone!

Last night’s episode was ridiculously cool. I’m still confused about the time travel, and I reserve the right to hate this mess of insanity, but The Constant was pretty compelling stuff.

Honestly, it reminded me of, like, a really great X-File. Like Triangle or The Sixth Extinction. (Actually a lot like TSE if you recall Mulder’s “You were my constant, my touchstone” speech.)

The story was self-contained: thank goodness Desmond is in the clear and I don’t have to endure four more bloody-nosed episodes. That’s something that’s pretty new for Lost. All of the drama was compacted into that one episode; the conflict was introduced and resolved within 42 minutes. I didn’t find any fresh answers here (only fresh questions), and while it ultimately fell into the Lost current storyline and mythology, it sure didn’t feel like your everyday episode.

For starters, it was almost all about Desmond. (Lostpedia says Ben, Claire, Hurley, Jin, Kate, Locke, Michael, Miles, Sawyer, and Sun were all absent from the episode, despite being credited.) It also took place almost entirely off the island, with the freighter providing the setting for most of the “real-time” scenes. Then, there’s the fact that the flashbacks were actually affected by the real-time events, so much so that Lostpedia had to forgo its usual format of recapping all flashback events, then all real-time events, instead using an episodically chronological format. Did you follow that?

Oh! Can we talk for a second about the locations for those flashes? Specifically the little courtyard at “Oxford.” Now, I’m sure I’ve seen that spot before in movies or on television. I want to say it was part of Young Jed Bartlet’s prep school campus in The West Wing episode “Two Cathedrals.” Check out these screencaps here and here and see if you agree with me.

Another blogger brilliantly recognized the set as one that is familiar to Lost. In “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” the arches can be seen behind the monk and Mrs. Hawking.

What does this mean? No clue. Can anyone specifically identify what this location is in real life and what else it's been used for?

Moving on, let’s discuss this little time glitch we seem to be faced with.

I have long believed that Lostpedia’s timeline is accurate. I’ve had no reason to doubt it, and though it confirmed that a lot of really crappy stuff happened on my birthday, it also gave me an idea of when my two favorite things ever would coincide: Lost and Christmas. As it approached, I got more and more excited to see how it would be handled. (I even blogged about it here, here, and here.)

When it came and went without fanfare—with nary a mention, in fact—I was a little sad, I guess. But I’d rather have no Christmas than Skate Christmas, which is, I guess, what it would have been. So last night, watching that episode, I was taken aback by the freighter’s calendar, which suggests that it is only December 24...Christmas Eve.

Something’s not right.

There are, by my count, three possible explanations.

A. The island and the real world are a couple of days apart now, as opposed to the 30-something minutes that were counted before.B. The Lostpedia timeline isn’t totally reliable.C. The producers lost track of time or they forgot about Christmas and purposefully lost track of time.

If it’s either B or C, I’m freaking thrilled. Because it means not only could we still get Island Christmas, we could get Jate Christmas. Jate, Island, Non-Barracks, Non-Sawyer Christmas. Feliz Navidad, Team Jack! If it’s A, I’m so confused.

Okay, and an observation.

Daniel mentioned something about Desmond possibly being exposed to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism. Clearly, he has been exposed to the latter. Hello, the sky turned purple. Sorry you missed that, Dan.

And what do we know about the Oceanic Six?

Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid. All people who weren’t at the beach/near the hatch when the sky turned purple.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But could it be possible that getting off the island has something to do not with who wants to leave, but who can leave? Desmond got majorly lucky being able to contact his Constant, but what of the rest of them? What do the Islanders really have that they also had in the real world? Obviously, there are some inconsistencies with this theory. Aaron was on the beach, yet he’s off the island. And no matter where they were, everyone on the island seemed to feel some effects of the discharge (except Ben, but, well, he’s Ben). Just something to think about.

Okay, so next week is Juliet-centric, which I guess could be interesting. I always like to see the Others perspective—gives us at least a little new information every time. Until then, my name is Caroline and I love Christmas.

PS I was lying when I said I'd give up Jack and Kate for Desmond and Penny. I don't give up that easily, folks.

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And HA, don't worry about Caroline and her Jate obsession. Desmond & Penny may have caused us both to swoon and shed a few tears of joy, but I guarantee that was only because we didn't have a single moment of Jate to pounce upon that night *wink* Have no fear, Caroline's motto is: J8 is F8.

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